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General discussion

3D audio effects on. I want them off!

Apr 10, 2008 3:20PM PDT

I recently had to reinstall XP. Somebody was nice enough to tell me that there was no need for me to partition my drives. That was just plain silly and unnecessary. Had I partitioned my drive, then I would have had the original installation files needed to put my computer back to normal, because I wouldn't have had to format anything but C:

Thank you, wise one.

Anyway, for some reason 3D Audio Effects is turned on somewhere and I cannot figure out where that is. I checked everything on my Start Menu. The program is not in my programs list. I checked all the audio options in Control Panel. It only shows me the original XP sound mixer, and there's nothing in there at all that allows me to turn of 3D effects. It's driving me crazy because everything echoes.

I have a C-Media sound card, which I also can't find anything for. Windows XP automatically configured my computer for use with my C-Media PCI card. Only that first time that it found the driver was I able to tell it what kind of speakers I had and I must have accidentally checked 3D Audio Effects or something.

Either way, I didn't buy any of the hardware. The PCI sound card was already there and I can't determine what version of C-Media it is.

All I want to do is find that little checkbox that allows me to turn off this wretched echo. I am trying to find that application that allowed me to choose what kind of speakers I had. This application wasn't the default one; this particular application shows different pictures of the colored inputs on the back of each type of card, and it also has a graphic of speakers set in certain spots, where you can drag the speakers to certain places to customize how your system will sound according to where your speakers are set.

If ANYBODY knows what the hell I'm talking about, please reply. I'm not hallucinating. I know I saw that application when XP installed the driver and I haven't seen it since, nor do I know how to find it.

Thank you.

PS, it's NOT Winamp, in case somebody else tries to "insist" it. It did this before I installed Winamp. I installed Winamp hoping they would have something in the preferences to turn 3D Effects off.

Specs:
Windows XP Pro SP2 (so far fully updated)
Installed on C: (Default installation)

Dell Dimension L800r, original motherboard, Pentium III
C-Media PCI sound card, Model Unknown

Discussion is locked

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3D Audio Effects
Apr 10, 2008 9:41PM PDT

Do you have an extra audio icon in your system tray that is sound related? If not, there should be one in Control Panel - you might want to switch the view to Classic to find it easier.
Maybe it will be in the program you described about having the pictures and settings for sound. You are looking for something named along the lines of Sound Effects or Environment. (for example my computer has Realtek HD Audio Manager and under the Environment drop down - there are several settings I can choose - Padded Cell, Living Room, Cave etc...all of these settings affect the sound and give the echo effect) I know that the Realtek isn't an AC-97 but you hopefully get the idea of where to look.

Good luck.

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Found It
Apr 22, 2008 7:17PM PDT

I don't know what happened at all. I went through my control panel [what felt like] 50 times and out of nowhere, Xear 3D shows up. Anyway I found everything that I needed to fix through that program. I'm so glad that it's finally back to normal. I'm a musician and I just can't enjoy music when it sounds like donkey butt, knowing that I can fix it, but I just can't find the "knobs."

Anyway, thank you for your help. I have it set up to show on my taskbar now, so that I'll never have to deal with that again.

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(NT) Good Deal !! :)
Apr 22, 2008 10:37PM PDT
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Turn Off Xear 3D Effects [how to]
Nov 2, 2012 2:50AM PDT

(posting because Liriks did not detail his fix!!!)

Here's the fix for turning off effects in the Xear 3D program:

(XP)
Start > Control Panel > CMI Audio Config (Xear 3D logo)

And - once you have the C-Media 3D Audio Configuration window open:

• go to the 'Effect' tab
• make sure the 'More Option' tab is deselected (gray) not selected (blue)

That's it - crappy reverb gone!

(and remember to TELL US what you did next time, Liriks Wink )